


I Just Need a Minute

by adaintywomanofmystery



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fluff, M/M, blood mention, cats causing chaos, very minor character injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 13:38:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19769326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adaintywomanofmystery/pseuds/adaintywomanofmystery
Summary: Andrew just wants five minutes alone. Neil and the cats have other plans. Written for Day 5 of Andreil Week, prompt: cats.





	I Just Need a Minute

Andrew has never been the best at expressing his feelings. For the longest time he worked very hard to convince everyone, including himself, that he didn’t have feelings. It’s been years since he met Neil and he’s come a long way, but he’s still not great with acknowledging feelings.

It comes in brief moments; moments where he realizes without thinking that he’s actually looking forward to the future. A future with his partner and their two cats.

Despite these new feeling and revelations, Andrew is a quiet, introspective person by nature and he needs his space to stay sane. Time away from everyone and everything where he can decompress and sort through his thoughts. 

Those moments used to come smoking cigarettes on a rooftop a thousand miles away. Even though he’s quit smoking—now that he’s actually committed to an Exy career it’s not a habit he can afford to keep—he still likes the height, and the feeling of removal, like all of his problems are really small and far away. The fear feels more pure; a fear of heights is straight-forward, no hidden edges. 

They’ll probably get a house soon, but for now they live on the 14th floor of a large apartment building and Andrew makes due with the balcony.

It’s one of those nights where Andrew is staring vacantly out across the city, when he feels something soft wind in between his legs. He nearly jumps off the balcony with the force of his surprise—thank god Neil wasn’t there to witness it or he’d never let Andrew live it down—and curses himself for letting his guard down.

Andrew’s perfect memory means he knows for sure he shut the balcony door, so the pile of fluff that has revealed itself to be Sir must have opened the door. That is certainly concerning. Sir is a recent addition to their household, and Andrew is hoping that his energetic, nosy nature won’t rub off on the extremely lazy King. 

As if the universe was listening in specifically looking to spite him, Andrew’s fear are realized a moment later when King appears next to Sir and the two start begging for attention. Andrew sighs, his moment of reprieve over as he wanders inside to feed the cats so that they will leave him alone.

***

It’s a lazy Sunday, which is Andrew’s favourite day of the week. They finished the errands yesterday, nothing is scheduled, and Andrew is fully committed to not leaving the house. He’s currently lying on the couch, novel abandoned on the floor as he slips in and out of sleep. The house is quiet and peaceful, and Andrew is enjoying the silence when Neil gets back from his playdate with Allison.

Andrew is almost disappointed at the interruption, but it is mild irritation at best. The feeling increases slightly when Neil starts puttering around the kitchen, but Andrew brushes it off. Neil starts up a steady stream of chatter, taking Andrew’s silence in stride. 

Most days Andrew doesn’t mind the occasional chatty moods Neil gets into, but he’s heard this story about one of their teammates four times already, despite having been there for the actual event, and so he’s doing his best to just block it out. He would tell Neil to stop talking, but that was too much effort.

Andrew is just falling back into a light sleep when the cats suddenly enter the room in a whirlwind. King immediately jumps up to sit on Andrew’s face while Sir starts attacking his feet. 

Disgruntled at his almost-nap being disturbed, Andrew pushes King off his face, sputtering from all the cat hair as King resettles on his chest. He wallows in the sudden influx of attention for a couple of minutes until a particularly vicious swipe of claws from Sir has him kicking at his attacker.

Deciding he might as well get up—since he is apparently not going back to napping—Andrew retreats to the bathroom to have a minute to himself. He’s just sitting on the fluffy bathmat in front of the tub, enjoying the solitude for a minute without anyone asking for his attention, when he hears the telltale click of the door. 

A moment later a curious Sir pokes his head in, meowing as he stalks into the room. Andrew takes a deep breath, remembering breathing exercises from long ago with Bee. One cat is an annoyance, but it is manageable. Except a moment later it isn’t one, it’s two, as King pokes his head, determined to not be left behind by Sir.

Andrew submits to his fate of being covered in cats and leans back against the tub, just as he hears swearing coming from the kitchen. A moment later Neil enters the bathroom, holding a slowly reddening paper towel to the palm of his left hand. 

He stops, taking in the strange tableau—Andrew on the bathroom floor and covered in cats—with a puzzled look on his face. Andrew stares back in defiance, as if to say this is exactly what he wanted.

“I’m bleeding,” Neil blurts out, as if needing to explain why he’s intruding on this strange spectacle. Andrew almost sighs in frustration. He only wanted to be alone for five minutes, and now he’s trapped in their tiny bathroom with every living being in the house. 

“Yes, I can see that. Why are you bleeding?” Andrew responds, perhaps a little testier than he meant to be. 

Neil hesitates before muttering, “Stupid avocados. I’ll never trust a vegetable again.”

“Avocados are technically fruits,” Andrew helpfully reminds him. People love being corrected on pointless minutiae after all, and Andrew wouldn’t want to disappoint.

“And that’s definitely not my point,” Neil says, shaking his head, and turning back to their cupboard, easily taking care of the wound one-handed. Andrew tries not to think about  
why Neil is so good at that. It does come in handy though.

“I was wondering where you’d ended up,” Neil continues, deflecting the conversation away from himself as he turns to the sink to deal with the blood that is now starting to run down his wrist and onto their floor. 

“I needed to get away for a minute,” is the only explanation Andrew gives.

“Well, I can see you were successful,” Neil says sarcastically, eyeing the squirming cats in Andrew’s lap. 

“I should have known you would get lonely and try to find me,” Andrew fires back. 

“Hm, yes. I got lonely so I stabbed myself so you would feel bad for me when I found you. Did it work?”

“Are you going to bleed out?” Andrew asks instead, ignoring Neil’s sarcasm.

“I’ll be fine,” Neil responds with an eye roll. 

“Then I am going out,” Andrew decides suddenly, “If you need something, do not hesitate to keep it to yourself.” Andrew stands, sending cats scattering onto the floor before pushing past a surprised Neil. 

“Oh, and that’s another one for the ‘I’m fine’ fine jar,” Andrew pops his head back into the bathroom to say before leaving again. He smiles internally at the look on Neil’s face.

Andrew’s only going to drive around for a while, so he doesn’t bother changing out of his lazy day clothes. He just grabs his wallet, keys and phone, because despite what he said, he would never go out without a way to contact him, unlike someone else he knows. 

Driving through the city is frustrating, but Andrew knows the short cuts that quickly lead to open road and fewer people. It’s the middle of the day on Sunday and it’s a hot summer day, so there isn’t much traffic leaving the city. 

He drives around aimlessly for a while, the window rolled down to let the breeze rush through the car. He pushes the pedal down, going faster and faster down empty road, letting his frustration disappear behind him. 

It’s not that he isn’t used to being around other people; after all, he basically spent five years following Kevin almost everywhere. It’s just, every now and then he needs his space, where his attention isn’t constantly being demanded.

Once his nerves have calmed down, Andrew turns back towards home. He doesn’t feel guilty, because guilt and regret are useless and self-serving emotions, but he does think Neil deserves a better explanation. 

He gets back to the apartment, which is eerily silent. Frowning, Andrew walks farther into the apartment, expecting to be ambushed by cats at any moment. He finally finds Neil with the cats in the bedroom. There’s a duffel bag half-packed on the bed. Andrew tries not to jump to conclusions, but the sight of the bag still stings.

“That seems like a little bit of an extreme reaction, all things considered,” Andrew says from the doorway, enjoying the way he makes Neil jump and turn around.

Neil looks confused for a second before it clicks; “Oh, It’s not… I wasn’t going to… you know I don’t do that anymore. I just figured I could stay with Matt or someone if you needed some space. Just temporarily.”

Andrew feels that funny feeling in his chest whenever Neil does something like this. Instead of trying to explain the snarl of thoughts in his head, he makes grabby hands at Neil, who gets the hint, coming closer. Andrew curls his hands into the front of Neil’s shirt, dragging him down to his level, before pulling him into a bruising kiss.

“No,” is all Andrew says, foregoing other explanation.

“Okay,” Neil says with a smirk on his face, somehow understanding despite the unspoken words hanging in the air.

Despite the ups and downs of the day, as Andrew pulls Neil in for another kiss, he thinks there isn’t anywhere else he’d rather be.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and Kudos are always appreciated. Come yell at me on Tumblr at reneeisbuffjesus.


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